Toy Story (franchise)/Tear Jerker

You went to go see a comedy about toys. You ended up halfway through flashing back to sitting at your grandma's bedside as she passed away.

—Drew Magary, on Toy Story 2

Possibly one of the most emotional film trilogies of all time, especially for the third, which is so powerful that even hearing the story second-hand is enough to make one break down and weep.

Spoiler alert.

Toy Story

• The "I Will Go Sailing No More" sequence. The scene where Buzz learns that he's a toy.
  • And immediately after, when Buzz tries to defy reality by flying off the stairwell railing. After crashing to the floor, he glances over to where his arm popped off at the ball joint, and despairs...
• The song "Strange Things". Woody starts off playing with Andy and then suddenly Buzz is taking his place and Woody is staring around in shock at the way the room, and effectively his whole world, is changing so rapidly around him. The stunned expression on his face as everything changed really started my heartstrings. Amazingly this moment is somehow more gutwrenching than him staring out of the toybox at the end of the day.
• When Woody admits to Buzz his fear of getting replaced:

Woody: Look, over in that house is a boy that thinks you are the greatest, and it's not because you're a space ranger, pal; it's because you are a toy. You are his toy.

Buzz: But why would Andy want me?

Woody: Why would Andy want you? Look at you! You're a Buzz Lightyear! Any other toy would give up its moving parts just to be you. You've got wings, you glow in the dark, you talk! You helmet does that, that, that woosh thing. You are a cool toy! (pause) As a matter of fact, you're too cool. I mean... I mean what chance does a toy like me have against a Buzz Lightyear Action Figure? All I can do is (pulls string) *voice box: there's a snake in my boots*. Why would Andy ever want to play with me, when he's got you? I should be the one strapped to that rocket.

• "Oh Woody. If only you could see how much Andy misses you."

Toy Story 2

• Jessie's backstory must have a direct mainline to your worst fears of abandonment and lost childhood for all the tears it extracts. Sarah McLachlan singing "When She Loved Me" in the background gives it a feeling of true love lost, too.
  • The leadup where Jessie reveals she knows exactly what Andy means to Woody, and why:

Woody: Well if you knew him you'd understand Andy is a-
Jessie: [bitter] Let me guess, Andy is a real special kid and to him you're his buddy; his best friend and when Andy plays with you it's like... [wistful] even though you're not moving, you feel like you're alive, because that's how he sees you.
Woody: How did you know that?
Jessie: Because... Emily was just the same, she was my whole world.

• • What Jessie said immediately after she finished the song.

Jessie: You never forget kids like Emily or Andy... but they forget you.

• • The DVD commentary stated that Joan Cusack, Jessie's VA, also cried while recording the last line.
  • Tom Hanks, in an interview on the radio show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, revealed that when he and Tim Allen (Buzz) were watching an early release of the movie, after this scene, they both looked at each other across an empty theater, tears in their eyes.
  • At the end of the song, check the sad expression on Woody's face. It's enough to make cry even a grown-up man.
  • This quote from John Lasseter from The Pixar Story brilliantly describes this scene:

"At that moment you know that no one's thinking 'Well this is just a cartoon', 'this is just a bunch of pencil drawings on paper' or 'This is just a bunch of computer data'. No. These characters are alive and they're real."

• The scene where Woody realizes he needs to go back to Andy after seeing an old TV clip of himself singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" in the most straightforward and sweetest way if that makes any sense.
  • "I can't stop Andy growing up. But I wouldn't miss it for the world." Every. Single. Time.
• When Woody looks up, after Andy has done his own patch job on Woody's torn arm, with a sweet smile on his face, knowing that Andy cares for him all along...

Toy Story 3

• The Incinerator Scene. Children's toys. Accepting oblivion. If you are not moved by this scene, general opinion is that you were born without a soul. Even after repeated viewings a few tears will be shed. When the toys were facing death together in the furnace, they seemed to break off into groups, depending on who was closest. So, every toy was huddling close to another, or burying their faces in each other's shoulders (Buzz and Jessie, the Potatoheads), except Woody. Sure, he was holding Buzz and Slinky's hands, but they were too far off for him to really get close. At the very end, when everyone else has someone close, in comparison, Woody is facing this alone. It's then that you realize that, since the beginning, Woody has been the one keeping them all together. And he's still doing that at the very end.
• The beginning of a trailer for Toy Story 3: A sad song playing over footage of young Andy playing with his toys. (set just after TS2). Just.... watch it. If this movie can make you cry in the first minute of the trailer then expect this movie to be absolutely full of these moments. Oh, and that song playing in the trailer? Here's the full version. It's called Losing You by Randy Newman. Have a box of tissues nearby...
  • The scene a small while before this, where Buzz is running through the compactor area with Jessie in his arms, triumphant music playing -- and then a TV falls on him. The look in Woody's eyes -- and Jessie's -- that look of sheer, unadulterated horror of facing the prospect that his best friend could be broken.
• Woody leaves a note for Andy to take his toys to Bonnie. When Andy brings them to her, Andy takes them out and introduces them to her, playing with her and with them for one last time. One of the last shots of the movie is Andy, about to drive off to college, waving goodbye to Bonnie as she stands on the front porch, Buzz and Woody in her arms. As she waves goodbye, she picks up Woody's arm to make him "wave" goodbye.
  • What makes this more heart-wrenching is that as Andy is taking the toys out, he takes Woody out last, not knowing how he got in the box. When Bonnie recognizes him as her cowboy doll, she reaches for him, but Andy slightly pulls Woody back. This is when he tells her how Woody would always be there for her. And after the whole playtime sequence, as Andy is driving away, Woody says, "So long, partner."
  • Andy was surprised because, for a moment, it seemed like Woody was ACTUALLY waving goodbye to him, which, he WAS. And also the line, "Thanks guys..." It was a true farewell to childhood. It hit too close to home with a major demographic for the movie, and that is college students, or people who have just recently crossed the thin line into adulthood from childhood.
• The first scene that really made me gulp back tears was, believe it or not, this:

Woody: Sure, we've lost some friends along the way... Wheezy, and Etch, and...
Rex: Bo Peep?
(Beat)
Woody: (clear tremor in his voice) Yeah, even... even... Bo...

• • This moment gets even worse when you stop to think about it: the toys are effectively immortal. It's not just that Bo Peep is gone, it's that Woody will live forever, and never see the woman he loves again.
  • And before that conversation, their elaborate plan to get Andy to open the toy box in the futile hope he'll play with them, and he just moves them aside to get his phone. Rex's elation at simply being held shows how long it's been for them, how starved they are for attention, and how bad things have gotten for them since the second film.
• Did no one else cry at Lotso's backstory? Or the bit where Woody tries to show Big Baby that Daisy never replaced him and Lotso smashes that name tag thing. Just before it turned awesome it was pretty tear-jerking.

"Mama?"

• • The fact that Lotso started hitting Big Baby. It's just horrible seeing the poor guy never getting a break.
• When Woody learned Buzz wasn't coming with him. Between the absolute hurt on his face that he didn't even have his best friend anymore summed up with his refusal to shake his hand kept her sniffling until they finally made up
• What Lotso's cronies did to the poor Telephone. The sad, resigned look on his face as he gave the following line.

"Sorry, Cowboy. They broke me."

• During the end credits, this Spanish version of "You've Got a Friend in Me" plays during a special end scene. It is both beautiful and heart-wrenching because you've known these characters for years now, and now it's time to say goodbye forever.
  • Not forever. We still have the Toy Story shorts.
• Sort of a Fridge Tearjerker, but anyone who's grown up with a pet will recognize that the puppy that was so vibrant and energetic in Toy Story 2 is, well, not long for this world in Toy Story 3. Given his condition, it would be surprising if he lasts through Andy's first semester.
• Big Baby freaked the living daylights out of most people (myself included), but when he tries to see in through Daisy's window in the flashback and Lotso just grabs him and yanks him away, that really hit a soft spot. It only got worse when Lotso started shoving Big Baby around on the dumpster and said that his momma didn't love him anymore. He may be a henchman, but he's still just a baby, damn it!
  • Actually, that Big Baby's a henchman makes it even WORSE; Lotso's not exactly rewarding Big Baby's loyalty by treating him that way. ^[1]
• Andy's mom gasps as the realization that her son is really leaving finally sinks in. That one gasp, and hug. Her line shortly after the gasp. It's failproof:

Andy's mom: I know. It's just...I wish I could always be with you. *sob*

• The fact that this movie came out the weekend many high schools across the US had their graduation ceremonies. Just think about that.
  • Given that this is a film trilogy that an entire generation has essentially grown up with, anyone who doesn't shed a little tear at the end truly has no soul.
• Sarge's speech about how he and his two remaining troops will be the first to be thrown out "when the trash bags come out". It could be summed up in one phrase, "we're screwed". got to me, being a huge fan of the little green guys.

1. ↑ It's arguably even foreshadowing for the betrayal of Woody and Buzz that is about to show up later on.